Possibly the third-best music photos in the Bay Area

Month: November 2014

British rock band The 1975 hit San Francisco’s Masonic Temple on November 18th, to the delight of apparently every high school girl in the city. Some fans lined up before 9AM (on a school day!) and apparently figured their love of the Mancunian lads would provide all the sustenance they needed, because several of them passed out and had to be carried out of the crowd before the show even started. Ushers and security personnel handed out water, while all the fans toward the front shot dagger looks and snide mean-girl remarks at anyone with the temerity to get in their way (mostly photographers). The crowd at GWAR was slightly less aggressive. All in all, a fairly crazy happening.

Country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson played the first of three consecutive nights opening for The Drive-By Truckers at the Fillmore on November 20th. Undoubtedly the world’s premiere Kentuckian employing a crack guitarist from the Baltics (Estonian virtuoso Laur Joamets, AKA Lil Joe), Simpson was met by a greatly enthusiastic crowd that affirmed his standing as one of country music’s up-and-comers. Check out some photos from the show.

Few bands could survive the death of their last founding member/lead singer, but GWAR is not most bands. They’ve always had a rotating lineup of musicians/Slave Pit attendants, and the show was always more important than the personnel. Still after Dave Brockie–aka”Oderus Urungus”–died earlier this year, the issue of how GWAR could carry on was a legitimate question. Continue reading →

Weezer are in the midst of a small club tour, and played the 400-capacity Slim’s in San Francisco on November 2nd. The show started with frontman Rivers Cuomo onstage alone with an acoustic guitar. Continue reading →

Kathleen Hanna’s latest rock outift, The Julie Ruin, hit San Francisco’s historic Fillmore on November 1. After canceling a summer tour due to Hanna’s health issues, the band–and Hanna–were in fine form as they played songs from their record, Run Fast, as well as a handful of new songs they were road testing for the first time. Though the show was in San Francisco, Hanna wore a Cabaret-style leotard in honor of her aunt who used to live in New York and who was in attendance. Fancy.

Bay Area garage rock trio Younger Lovers opened with an energetic set, full of hard-hitting tunes, tales of growing up gay in Alabama, and knocks on Modest Mouse.
Check out the gallery… Continue reading →

LA quartet Warpaint hit San Francisco as they wind down their tour behind their second record, Warpaint, which came out early this year. A less-than-soldout Monday night crowd at the Regency made up what they lacked in number with sheer force of enthusiasm. At least one group of fans successfully delivered baked goods to the band. No reports on whether Warpaint ate the box of pastries gifted to them by fanatical, total strangers. Seeing as Warpaint subsequently had to cancel/reschedule their upcoming European dates, those baked goods are looking more and more suspicious.Continue reading →